Don Peppe — Restaurant in New York

I don't get what the big deal is. This is a red sauce Italian place, like many others in New York. It looks like it was redecorated in 1987, with rough sort of stucco walls that were popular back then. They kept the old oil paintings that they'd probably had since back in the day, and put them on top, which made for a really weird time period mashup that didn't work. But on to the food.

The baked clams were supposed to be otherwordly. They were not. My guess is that a lot of people have just had baked clams cooked improperly, which is a shame. These were cooked properly and decent, but nothing special. And paying over $1 per clam before tax and tip is a pretty hefty price.

The waiter also recommended the stuffed artichoke. Like the clams, it was fine, but not special. And again, expensive for what it was.

Finally, the linguini with white clam sauce was similarly ok. It was nice and garlicky, and you could taste the clams, but it somehow felt a little bit bland. Underwhelming even.

But what really got me was the service. I received a call on my cell that I didn't take when the artichoke was about halfway finished. It probably took five more minutes to polish it off, and then another 40-45 to get the linguini. They didn't make the pasta from scratch. Last I checked, it doesn't take 40 minutes for dried pasta to cook. Maybe they were catching the clams, and the boat had mechanical problems. We'll never know. Other diners that ordered after us got their food first. No apologies. No reasons given. Our water glasses hit the bottom and our bread basket was empty.

I would not go back here. If anybody asked me about it, I'd tell them not to venture all the way out for it. Let the locals and tourists think that they're getting...

I never post a bad review, but dinner at Don Pepe this was such a terrible experience I felt the need to tell others. Came here tonight with my family, we were a group of 9. It was our first time, and from the moment we sat down, we were confused. This was a theme that continued throughout our entire dinner. We were not guided on the menu, how to order for our party, or pricing, we assumed the prices on the menu were what we were going to get. To start, we decided on some apps, a salad, 2 orders of baked clams and eggplant rollatini. The salad came out first where the server served large portions of the salad into 5 plates.. then walked away. We are a party of 9. We asked if we could have more plates and he quite rudely told us “this is a salad for 5 I told you you need 2.” Meanwhile, the salad was PLENTY For each of us, when we divided it. Aside from that, we ordered 4 different entrees for the table, under the assumption each order would be plenty for the 9 ppl we have. The food was good, but nothing special at all. The most confusing part of it all was when the bill came. The waiter took it upon himself and just tripled each of our orders, without saying a word to us. When asked why we were charged 3x for each entree he said that’s how much you needed. Meanwhile NONE of this had been explained to us prior to. That goes for the wine too which was $80/bottle. Price was listed nowhere…and the wine was quite frankly terrible. We go out to dinner often as a family, and this is the worst service we have ever experienced. I don’t care if they are serving gold, I would never come back or recommend this place to anyone. Owners: your staff may just run you into the ground if you don’t...

On a recent evening we had dinner for 11 at the venerable Don Peppe in South Ozone Park (near JFK Airport), the granddaddy of family-style Italian restaurants. I first went there 30 years ago, and it was venerable even then. It isn't fancy or pretentious. Instead, it's just excellent fare consistently well prepared and well served, in an aging one-story white brick building. The waitstaff will guide you forthrightly about portion sizes and preparation of the dishes. Go with a group of at least 4 (more is better!) to share the large platters, family-style, and be prepared to take home extras. We come with this group of friends and colleagues annually.

Although the basic menu is written on the blackboard (see photo), it’s best simply to ask your waiter for suggestions that will suit your tastes, as they make many items that are not reflected on the blackboard. Even oenophiles don’t look at the wine list; pretty much everyone drinks the house white or the house red, both chilled (and both frankly not very good, but an integral part of the experience). Rumor has it that the wine is made in the basement, but I’m just saying….

Last night, we enjoyed: Don Peppe salad, garlic bread, baked clams, mussels marinara, rigatoni 2 ways: marinara, and broccoli with garlic & oil, chicken scarpariello, lemon chicken, veal parm, shrimp Luciano, eggplant parm, burnt broccoli, and desserts: cannoli, sorbet, and ice cream, with cappuccino and espresso. For fear of running out of superlatives, I’ll just summarize by saying that pretty much everything lived up to our high expectations. Note: no reservations, almost no dress code (no tank tops or hats), no credit...